Procurement apps will contain more data integration functions

American Management Systems Inc. will embed a data integration platform into several of its enterprise procurement applications for government agencies.

Procurement Desktop Defense is the company's federal application that will use middleware from webMethods Inc. to connect users to other systems, said Michael Dow, vice president of AMS' federal defense group. Both AMS and webMethods are located in Fairfax, Va. The webMethods technology also will be used with Procurement Desktop Industry, aimed at government contractors, and Buysense, a procurement system for state and local governments.

Procurement Desktop Defense is AMS' commercial application for the Defense Department's Standard Procurement System, now being used by about 20,000 workers at 700 locations, Dow said. AMS is almost halfway through a 10-year contract to roll out SPS for the department.

For the last two years AMS has embedded webMethods middleware into its government financial management applications, Federal Financial System and Momentum, Dow said.

Dow and Al Fox, webMethods' director of public sector operations, said the combination of technologies would let contracting officers and other procurement officials administer acquisitions from initial request to contract closeout without pushing paper.

Procurement systems need data that is stored in a wide range of systems, from servers running under multiple operating systems to legacy mainframes, Fox said.

'Integration is easier with tools like webMethods, but it's still a significant effort,' Dow said.